Day 24 and 1 Pip

[Chickira]

I have about 30 eggs in the incubator from all over. Some were shipped, some are mine, some I bought from local breeders. I expected hatch day to start Friday (April 3rd) at 2 p.m. I put the eggs in lockdown Tuesday, March 31st.

Incubation has been uneventful. Temps on top of the eggs have remained 99.5 to 100. Humidity has been 50-55% I am using a Farm Innovators 4250 with digital readout. The only fault I find is I had thermometers stuck own through holes in 2 corners, and their reading was around 97. The incubator has a circulation fan and an egg turner. I candled on days 10 and 18.

Saturday I had 3 wobbles. Sunday I had no wobbles, but I had 1 egg chirping (that I had not seen wobble). Monday morning (today, day 24 at 2 p.m.) I had no wobbles, no chirping, and 1 egg (that I had not seen wobble or chirp) pipped. The pipped eggs seems to be doing fine.

My question is, what happened!? What are the chances I will have more hatch? I don't want to handle them for candling or water testing in order to keep the humidity stable within the incubator. If I do have a hatch on day 25 and after, what are the chances of them being healthy? How would being in lockdown a week affect them?

I hatched 24 eggs last year in the same type of incubator but with no fan and no egg turner. I turned the eggs 4 times day by hand. I had 21 of the 24 hatch successfully. Two died before pipping and 2 died because of my stupidity (intervening).

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I have about 30 eggs in the incubator from all over. Some were shipped, some are mine, some I bought from local breeders. I expected hatch day to start Friday (April 3rd) at 2 p.m. I put the eggs in lockdown Tuesday, March 31st.

Incubation has been uneventful. Temps on top of the eggs have remained 99.5 to 100. Humidity has been 50-55% I am using a Farm Innovators 4250 with digital readout. The only fault I find is I had thermometers stuck own through holes in 2 corners, and their reading was around 97. The incubator has a circulation fan and an egg turner. I candled on days 10 and 18.

Saturday I had 3 wobbles. Sunday I had no wobbles, but I had 1 egg chirping (that I had not seen wobble). Monday morning (today, day 24 at 2 p.m.) I had no wobbles, no chirping, and 1 egg (that I had not seen wobble or chirp) pipped. The pipped eggs seems to be doing fine.

My question is, what happened!? What are the chances I will have more hatch? I don't want to handle them for candling or water testing in order to keep the humidity stable within the incubator. If I do have a hatch on day 25 and after, what are the chances of them being healthy?

I hatched 24 eggs last year in the same type of incubator but with no fan and no egg turner. I turned the eggs 4 times day by hand. I had 21 of the 24 hatch successfully. Two died before pipping and 2 died because of my stupidity (intervening).

Were you running 50-55% humidity for the entire incubation and is your hygrometer checked for accuracy? Delayed hatch indicates low temps. Is it possible to have seemingly healthy chicks at day 24/25...anything is possible the probability lowers with every day they are late. My first hatch (a flop) produced a day 24 and a day 25 chick. The day 25 chicks was very weak and did not make it through 24 hours. My day 24 chick was lively and seemingly healthy.....I started noticeing the bigger he got the more problems I was seeing that I attribute to the delayed development. His balance is way off. He can walk and run alright, but he can not roost. If he picks up a foot to scratch himself he'll start to fall over. He also mouth breathes from time to time (that developed as he got heavier). We love him. He's a beautiful almost 7 month cockerel. But he will always be what I consider "special needs" and he'll never be used for mating.

 

[Chickira]

The humidity was steady at 50-55% for the entire period. I had 2 hygrometers, the one that came with the incubator and an extra I bought, and they meshed.

So, it's not sounding so good then! It's the temps in the corners that is the only fault I can find, but you'd think that would only affect the eggs in those corners. I'm just at a loss here!

 

[scflock]

The humidity was steady at 50-55% for the entire period. I had 2 hygrometers, the one that came with the incubator and an extra I bought, and they meshed.

So, it's not sounding so good then! It's the temps in the corners that is the only fault I can find, but you'd think that would only affect the eggs in those corners. I'm just at a loss here!

I agree with AmyLynn, and had a very similar experience my first hatch. My humidity was way too high for the first 18 days, and my results were much the same as yours. My magic number for humidity is now 40-42%, but AmyLynn is about to tell you about dry incubation, which seems to work better in styrobators

 

[Chickira]

Good to know about humidity. The instructions with the bator said to keep it at 55 to 60%. Last year I didn't even use a hydrometer with the still air incubator and had great success. I'm afraid to even try again with this one.

 

[scflock]

Good to know about humidity. The instructions with the bator said to keep it at 55 to 60%. Last year I didn't even use a hydrometer with the still air incubator and had great success. I'm afraid to even try again with this one.

Throw those horrendous instructions away. Everyone that follows the instructions included with LG, FI, etc... has similar results
AmyLynn will fill you in on the rest

 

[AmyLynn2374]

The humidity was steady at 50-55% for the entire period. I had 2 hygrometers, the one that came with the incubator and an extra I bought, and they meshed.

So, it's not sounding so good then! It's the temps in the corners that is the only fault I can find, but you'd think that would only affect the eggs in those corners. I'm just at a loss here!

Yes, the eggs in the corners that are lower would develope slower than eggs is the warmer more accurate spots...

I agree with AmyLynn, and had a very similar experience my first hatch. My humidity was way too high for the first 18 days, and my results were much the same as yours. My magic number for humidity is now 40-42%, but AmyLynn is about to tell you about dry incubation, which seems to work better in styrobators

LMAO

You know me so well.....

Good to know about humidity. The instructions with the bator said to keep it at 55 to 60%. Last year I didn't even use a hydrometer with the still air incubator and had great success. I'm afraid to even try again with this one.

Throw those horrendous instructions away. Everyone that follows the instructions included with LG, FI, etc... has similar results
AmyLynn will fill you in on the rest

sc knows that I am about to throw my rant on humidity control up here. Yes, I absolutely HATE the instruction manuals that come with these incubators that throw out humidity numbers or fill your well this full. No number works for everyone because there are too many variables and these styro bators seem to kill hatches at 50% or more humidity during lockdown. Because the chick tries to pip into the air cell only to find that not enough moisture was released from the egg and they drown. Ok, Here's my rant: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity Hope it helps understand the humidity issues.

I use a little giant with fan. I usually use the automatic turner, this time I turned by hand. I had 36 eggs go into lockdown and 33 hatch. I use the method in my blog. I'm not saying that this will work with everybody or that everyone who does it this way will have 90% plust hatches. Humidity is just one variable to a successful hatch. Accurate temp control, hatcher's habist with the handling and care of the eggs, the egg quality all plays a role as well. But when it comes to humidity, I personally, swear by theis method, at least for the styrofoam bators.

 

[scflock]

See? I told you

 

[Chickira]

Great read, thank you for the info. I'm thinking I don't want to try another styrobator. This has been too emotionally and financially taxing! Saturday, my husband played a joke on me and taped 2 egg shells he'd had for breakfast together to make it look like they'd hatched and placed them amongst the eggs in the incubator. I came home later that day and, of course, ran to the incubator and saw them and was elated one second and bawling the next, lol! He felt pretty bad

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Great read, thank you for the info. I'm thinking I don't want to try another styrobator. This has been too emotionally and financially taxing! Saturday, my husband played a joke on me and taped 2 egg shells he'd had for breakfast together to make it look like they'd hatched and placed them amongst the eggs in the incubator. I came home later that day and, of course, ran to the incubator and saw them and was elated one second and bawling the next, lol! He felt pretty bad

I know how you feel...I had an awful first hatch. I was so dissapointed, I said the same thing...not doing it again. But after a couple weeks I realized, I could not let it end with a bad hatch. I had to try, just one more time. So I figured out what my problems were, learned about humidity, (even though temp was my issue) and set about to try one more time. Armed with THREE thermometers and a hygrometer and the knowledge of humidity and dry incubations we set up for the second one. 16 eggs went into lockdown and 13 hatched out healthy...of course 7 ended up being roos. I will say this though. MOST of the styro bators have the greatest success with people that have the ability to babysit them. I am a stay at home mom so I have the ability to check and tweak and monitor throughout the day, versus someone that has to be gone 8+ hours a day. (I'm also up at least every two hours to check it at night wether it needs to be checked or not.)
IF you don't want to try again with a styro bator, I hope that at some point you will be able to try with another, because it really is an awesome experience when it works out. (Just remember no matter what kind of bator, checking air cells is the best way to monitor humidity.) Good luck in the future!!

Oh, and shame on hubby...men really don't think sometime!